Dangerous Statistics

Statistics: branch of mathematics that deals with the collection and interpretation of numerical information

In the last ten years it has been an increasing interest in statistics in this country. So, as it's something new to Spaniards, it can be dangerous. Stats give a new chance to them to say again "There's no better place than Spain". The problem is Spaniards don't generally know the meaning of all those numbers and their meaning. It's really easy to see on a newspaper "Mediterranean diet is good for the hearth" so then they assume Mediterranean Diet is the best, I'll analize this particular case:

It can be true that the mediterranean diet is good for the hearth, I won't argue about that, but of course it's not the best and, of course there's some others in the world and not all of them are so bad. Anyway and just as an example I'll say to you that the places in wich it's general to have that kind of diet are those in South Spain. And it's true that the hearth diseases are fewer there. But, if we look at another stat, it's also true that South Spain is the place where most women are killed by their husbands. So interpollating both stats I could say that Mediterranean Diet causes your husband to kill you.

The meaning of that is Stats could be dangerous sometimes, they depend on the chosed popullation, the place, and all the backgrounds. And also it depends on the meaning the analizer gives to all those data. But most spaniards don't know anything about that. And the newspapers contribute to make a mess of all that.

Another example, but this time with another country, and a bit rude in fact. Those really interesting stats about penises sizes all the Condom manufacturers like to show sometimes. It's said in USA they have really big penises. The real fact is that the number of Afro-Americans there is much longer than in Spain and the fact that most statistics say they have really big ones makes the USA medium size quite long. So I'm sure most Americans believe their penises are big, but if they're white skin I bet they don't have a bigger one than me. (I'm sorry for the rudeness).

And continuing, about Spain, politics and stats I should say the polls made the day before elections are never rigth, amazingly wrong in fact.

Another point is, as we all know now Spaniards never tell the truth, it's easy to see stats aren't never rigth here. But when there's nothing else to do, to expend the public money in, just let's do some nonsense stats to make the people happier as they see Spain is the best country in the world in spite of the sizes of our penises , they aren't that big (we hope the arriving of moroccans would solve that).

There's one group of people that loves stats, and it's the middle aged bored males, clerks and retired. They not only love to read them but also makes their owns.

Have a nice time. Hope I'll write again.

Manoel.

PS: Now it's 1 moth and 2 weeks before I leave.